CHAPTER II.
THE VANISHING MAN For the first few seconds the Grammar School boys stood as if chained to the ground, their eyes staring with alarm and horror.
They stared at the man, apparently of middle age, who lay there, and they beheld the blood.
What on earth could have happened?
Boom! It was a lesser explosion that now sounded inside, yet it was enough to galvanize the boys into action.
"Come on!" cried Tom Reade, setting off in the lead.

"We don't know nor care what's in there!" "The house may blow up next," added Greg, following him.
All the members of Dick & Co.

were now in full retreat.

They were courageous lads, but, with the immediate landscape in seeming danger of blowing up, getting away was the wisest possible course.
"Say, what do you make of that ?" demanded Greg breathlessly, when the Grammar School boys had halted, well out of sight of the cottage and down in the woods.
"Bang!" replied Tom dryly.

"That's all I heard." "And blood," almost chattered Hazelton.
"But what it means is a big puzzle," Dick added.